Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz approved an extensive program of direct
offensive strikes against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorists. In the
past hour, the IDF targeted Ahmed Jabri, the head of Hamas' military wing,
in the Gaza Strip. Jabri was a senior Hamas operative who served in the
upper echelon of the Hamas' command and was directly responsible for
executing terror attacks against the State of Israel in the past number of
years.

The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control
chain of the Hamas leadership, as well as its terrorist infrastructure. This
was a surgical operation in cooperation with the Israeli Security Agency,
that was implemented on the basis of concrete intelligence and using
advanced capabilities.

The IDF will continue to target sites that are used for carrying out terror
attacks against the citizens of Israel while improving their daily security.

IDF Spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai, said that IDF operations
began following the "intolerable situation in the south of the country, and
seeks to harm terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip." During
the night, IDF Chief of Staff Gantz approved the detailed plan. All options
are open in order to seriously damage Hamas and other terrorist
organizations."